1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to the field of software based business methods in general and in particular to messaging in interpersonal communications between a plurality of parties.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The conventional voice intercoms are based on hardware and wiring and for the function of messaging, i.e. providing a written record of an incoming call, its content and nature, use recorded voice mails, which are delivered audibly in serial fashion typically without the ability to provide a visual or written record as a series of recorded audio messages. Such conventional intercoms are inadequate in that archiving of the messages for record keeping, sorting and selecting the messages according to any parameter other than perhaps chronology of receipt is impossible.
Even in those cases where some type of response options are provided to the recipient of the message, the nature of the response is very limited, typically restricted to a forwarding or save function of the audio message without any indexing capability for later retrieval other than a first-in-first-out (FIFO) memory.
There is a need for the software based intercom system to include means for creating a visual record of a phone call, data processing or selectively handling the message for record keeping purposes and/or further communications with the caller or others.